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IINrTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE D. SIDMAN, OF \VASHINGKTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

LETTER-Box.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 449,865, dated April ".7, 1891.

Application filed J' une 2S, 1890. Serial No.357,04=8. (No model.) l

following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable -others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

In cities and towns where the free-delivery system obtains it is well known that much inconvenience or even annoyance has been suffered, as well as great loss of time occasioned, by the absence of suitable boxes i'n which letter-carriers might deposit their mail. The boxes heretofore devised have not been favored and generally adopted, I take it, because of their insecurity and expensiveness.

The object of my invention therefore is to overcome these and other difficulties that have hitherto stood in the way ot' a general adoption of a letter-box and to provide one that is cheap, simple, and durable, and which at the same time may be readily applied either to the inside or tothe outside of a door or upon the door-frame or fence-post or other similar place where it will be convenient for both the carrier and the person or persons to whom the mail is directed.

I will rst describe my improved box in detail, and then point out in the claim at the end of the description the features of which I deem to be new.

In the accompanying drawings, in the different views of which I have marked corre-v sponding parts with like letters of reference, Figure l represents a perspective view of the front side of a box made in accordance with my invention'. Fig. 2 is a View of the rear in elevation, and Fig. 3 is a vertical section of the box, taken on a plane indicated by the line 0c of Fig. 2, a section of a door and a mode of fastening the box to the front side of a door being also illustrated.

The box may be made of sheet metal, hard rubbelg'papier-mach, or 'any other suitable material stamped, molded, or pressed into the required shape, and it is composed, mainly,

of two parts, viz-the frame A and a door B.-

The frame comprises the walls a, which stand out at an angle from a surrounding flange b,

Vhinged cover, as shown,) through which letters, the., may be dropped. The door 13 is hinged, as shown, to one of the vertical walls of the box and will be furnished with a cheap but efficient lock.

Upon the face of the door I propose to place a small frame having a glass cover, be-

hind which may be. inserted a card containing information for the public at large and directions for the carrier, substantially as indicated on the drawings.

It will be observed that the box is open at its rear side, and that therefore, when placed against the surface upon which it is to be fastened, the said surface will constitute one of the inclosing walls of the receptacle.

As I have already said, my box may be fastened either upon the outside or upon the inside of a door. In Fig. 3 the fastening devices are shown to be bolts d, passing through the door C and having suitable nuts e for holding the said bolts in place. Bolts are preferably employed when the box is placed upon the outside of the door, and it is clear that they will prevent an Aeasy removal ot` the box from the outside. When the box is to be secured to the inner side of a door, ordinary wood-screws are preferred, and a slot D is made in the door, through which the mail is dropped int-0 the box. VThethcr the box be secured to the outer or to the inner side'of the door, the lock will prevent the meddling of curious and unauthorized persons.

To exclude water and dust from the interior of the box, it may be desirable to placca packing of cloth, rubber, leather, or the like between the iiange and the surface upon which the box is secured; but this is not always a necessary provision, and as it is an obvious and common expedient it constitutes no part of my present invention.

Having thus described my invent-ion, what IOO I c1am,and desire to Secure by Letters Patent, box, provided with a look whereby to secure is v f the inclosuro, and a slot through which 1ot- :o A letter-box composed of a frame having ters, &c., may be dropped, substantially as walls a, and a surrounding iange b, formed describd. integral with saidwalls, the said flange be- GEORGE D. SIDMAN. ing adapted to be placed upon and secured Witnesses:

to a. surface which forms the rear side of H. L. BRUCE, the box, a @over for the front side of said CHAUNCEY HICKOX. 

